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Topic: MasterCraft: Goa'uld (Read 3272 times)

Goa'uldYou are one of a race of sentient parasites that inhabit and take over the bodies of other species. With your knowledge of advanced technology, you have subjugated hundreds of worlds under your iron fist - all while posing as their gods and demanding their worship.[-2.0] Type: Diminuitive beast with a Reach of 0 (see page 226). Your maximum wounds equal your Constitution score× 0.5 (rounded down).[+0.0] • Attributes: No species modifiers (see Puppeteer).[-1.0] • Base Speed: 10 ft.[-1.0] • Reviled: The disposition of non-Jaffa decrease by 10.[+1.0] • Genetic Memory: Once per session, you may request a hint from the GM. If he refuses, you gain 1 bonus action die.[+2.0] • Noble Blood: You may purchase Noble Renown for 20 Reputation per rank (see page 187).[+1.0] • Blended Form: You may take species feats that your host body qualifies for.[+7.0] • Puppeteer: You gain a Species of your choice as a host. The hosts Base Speed, Size and Type override your own and you gain their attribute modifiers. Outside of a host, you revert to your normal Base Speed, Size and Type and begin dying (following the rules for Suffocation) unless you are transferred to a new host or specially designed life support system.

Opinions? Too powerful (likely)?

The alternate (likely far more balanced):

Goa'uldYou are one of a race of sentient parasites that inhabit and take over the bodies of other species. With your knowledge of advanced technology, you have subjugated hundreds of worlds under your iron fist - all while posing as their gods and demanding their worship.[+0.0] • Attributes: No species modifiers (see Puppeteer).[-1.0] • Base Speed: You gain your base speed from your host.[+1.0] • Genetic Memory: Once per session, you may request a hint from the GM. If he refuses, you gain 1 bonus action die.[+7.0] • Puppeteer: You gain a Species of your choice as a host. The hosts Base Speed, Size and Type override your own and you gain their attribute modifiers. Outside of a host, you become a Diminutive Immobile Beast and begin dying (following the rules for Suffocation) unless you are transferred to a new host or specially designed life support system. You may take Species feats that your Host species qualifies for.[-1.0] • Reviled: The disposition of non-Jaffa decrease by 10.

There's a mastercraft version already up in the Stargate area of the wiki

Care to provide a link? The only thing I can find in there is the 2.0 versions (not Master Craft). The wiki is pretty terribly organised - they're listed under SC1, which is utterly unintuitive, so I could have simply missed it if it was another baffling location.

Symbiotes as Personal Lieutenant PC's using those rules just screams "Abuse me". You're all but encouraged to max the hosts physical stats and totally dump their mental since the Symbiote totally overrides them. Not my cup of tea at all.

[+1.0] Snake in the Head: You gain a trick:Possession (Ambush Trick): As a full action, you may declare a character within your Run distance as your new host. Special characters as well as standard characters wearing moderate armor with helmets may resist with a Reflex save (DC 15+Dex Mod). Targeted special characters may spend an action die to become immune to this trick for the rest of the scene. You may spend up to an action die to cause your old (standard character) host to fail a damage save. You may use this trick a number of times per scene equal to your starting action dice.

I think there should be the notion of a temporary host (those with less than human intelligence, certain types, and maybe other limits) with a reputation cost for changing permanent hosts.

Symbiotes as Personal Lieutenant PC's using those rules just screams "Abuse me". You're all but encouraged to max the hosts physical stats and totally dump their mental since the Symbiote totally overrides them. Not my cup of tea at all.

In the rules for what can be a host, make design your own hosts pay double (or more) for physical abilities.

I replied a few hours ago but i lost connection and the text as well. i'm gonna try to remember what i wrote...

first, i have to say that it's been a long time since last I checked all this. i reread the other thread and found a few things in which i now disagree with myself. So i`m going to write down some ideas that are.floating in my mind after reading both threads...

About your version I like it. i like Genetic memory a lot, and pupeteer its a good idea but...

anyway... one version is for Pc and the other Npc... so i guess the problem is finding a way that works fine in both situations...

I'm thinking... would make sense to have a species feat that can be chosen by Pc of any race that establishes him as possesed by a Goa'uld? that way you create the host and then apply the goauld template...

A lot of relevance is being given to the fact that they can change hosts but this doesnt happen very often in the series, with the goauld usually keeping the same host for long periods of time. for a Pc its perfect and maybe changing hosts should be difficult or at least have bad temporary consequences... like having to relearn certain skills... losing a level... i`m thinking some effects like the ones that happen when a pc comes back from the dead...

I told my players that it would be covered by the Cheat Death rules. In the source material, they all keep the same host until they die (naturally for Tok'ra, and usually by violence for the Goa'uld). Ra had the same host for like 10, 000 years, and Apophis's host once free was an ancient Egyptian too - on the flip side, Selmak's first host (that we see) died on natural causes, and then he Cheated Death by transfering into Jacob Carter.

anyway... one version is for Pc and the other Npc... so i guess the problem is finding a way that works fine in both situations...

I believe for NPCs that it doesn't really matter. What's the real difference between a Human villain with a Ribbon Device / Hand Device that is overdressed, overdramatic and claims to be a god and a "Goa'uld" villain with the same stats?

I can't see any personally, which means you only need the diminutive serpent stats for wild Goa'uld - which can't be too uber, because that's "lose this grapple / ambush / whatever and you're an NPC" which is totally against the heroic roleplaying style that I prefer, and I believe is represented in the shows.

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I'm thinking... would make sense to have a species feat that can be chosen by Pc of any race that establishes him as possesed by a Goa'uld? that way you create the host and then apply the goauld template...

That's an idea. The only problem is that Goa'uld proper are pretty clearly NPCs. I don't like games where one PC is legitimately plotting to ruin the game for the others (unless it's done in good fun - see Paranoia), so having someone who is that utterly evil in the group just ruins things. For a PC who becomes a Tok'ra it'd be an excellent idea - get a Symbiote and take the feat.

Themewise, the Goa'uld live much longer than the Tok'ra only because they use the sarcophagus while the Tok'ra do not. So the Goa'uld keep the same hosts for thousands of years unless forced into other bodies (Osiris and Marduk for instance). Tok'ra take many hosts, because they cannot extend the life of their hosts. The past the point of the "treaty" sealed with selecting Jacob.

As for a Goa'uld feat, the stats and abilities and gifts that any feat for the Gou'ald gives a character would also give the Tok'ra (which is a viable PC race) those same powers. The only real difference between the two is philosophy.

Themewise, the Goa'uld live much longer than the Tok'ra only because they use the sarcophagus while the Tok'ra do not. So the Goa'uld keep the same hosts for thousands of years unless forced into other bodies (Osiris and Marduk for instance). Tok'ra take many hosts, because they cannot extend the life of their hosts. The past the point of the "treaty" sealed with selecting Jacob.

Technically they live the exact same length of time - all of the Tok'ra were originals, and had been around since their queen spawned them (several thousand years - same as the Goa'uld themselves). It's their hosts that don't live as long.

Still, in the show we never see one just change hosts because they feel like a new shirt - the ones that have changed had their host die (Marduk, Selmak) or were forced to via extraction (Osiris - though in it's case I'd argue that it taking Sarah was it's entry point into the campaign). Both those things involve the host being "no longer around" - which in my mind makes "Cheating Death" a great explanation for a new host body.

...the point is that Goa'uld can change bodies... but typically only do so when forced and seem to return to the same type of body (gender and species) as much as possible - they aren't on the whole into experimentation or body swapping of any sort. Mechanically we want any single individual Goa'uld to potentially inhabit any playable species, but setting lore suggests that once they pick one, they tend to stick with it.

So... What if goa'uld isn't handled as a species...? What if its a species feat that can then be applied to any host species character?

Take a human character, slap Infested on it, and now you are playing a human with a snake in your head. The player is the snake-inteligence. If the character dies, you have a particular form of cheating death (which can be handled as cinematically as The Extra Mile - which is to say you automatically escape to return later except under very specific circumstances).

I'd see there as being two things to address in the feat: what being a snake-head does for you full time, and the rules for what you can change when you swap bodies.

The constant benefits look to be along the lines of genetic memmory and noble blood. In fact all but the most basic benefits could be shoved off to feats that use Infested as a prerequisite.

The cheating death would let you pick a new gender, new species, and reassign attribute points except you cannot change you Int, Wis, or Cha scores. If you had species feats that are not compatible with your new host... I think you are SOL until you go back to a host like that. Incentive to not change that often.